Choose with their eyes, wrap it well with a handwritten note, and favor books, local treats or donations over generic gift baskets.
The idea
The barrier to showing you know, like, trust and appreciate someone is low. A gift only has to be meaningful, relevant and authentic. A simple custom gift beats a hefty price tag, and how it arrives matters as much as what's inside. Scale the effort to the relationship, and remember that how they experience it can be wildly different from what you paid.
How to do it
Start from what you know about them: kids, hobbies, where they're from, something they mentioned.
Pick something personal. Good defaults: a book that changed you, with a note on why; a gift certificate to a new local restaurant; a small donation in their name to a cause they care about; a treat from their hometown.
Share a piece of yourself with a local item. I've been known to mail a shaker of Old Bay, a seasoning some people in our region use more than salt and pepper, and that's rarely seen elsewhere.
Present it well: beautiful packaging and a handwritten note, not yet-another-Amazon-box.
Don't try for a perfect record. Ruhlin aimed for eight or nine out of 10.
Example
I once got the worst gift basket ever: "artisanal" snacks we'd never eat, every item glued to the next so it looked good on arrival, and 15 minutes of rage-peeling. Compare that to a passive recruiting candidate who mentioned his kid was into basketball. Instead of a milquetoast thank-you email, I shipped a basketball from Amazon with a short note. He'd see it in his driveway every day.
Gift as Artifact, Not Advertisement: A good gift creates shared history and reminds them of you every time they use it, so leave your logo off.
The Caring Is the Signal: A big gift and a quick check-in text can do the same job, showing you care, so stop waiting until you can do something big.
Gift the Inner Circle: Send gifts to the people around your contact, like their spouse, family or assistant, because almost nobody does and the bar is low.
Meaningful, Relevant, Valuable: Check every touchpoint, gift or event three ways: will they remember it, does it connect to what they care about, does it actually improve their life?